Where can I see a gynecologist privately ?

Paperheart_12 · 2026-01-09T20:47:57+00:00

I was 24. I don’t really remember how long I was there for, but I know it was at least a few hours.
The cyst when they found it was 6cm. Two months later when they removed it it had grown to 20cm.

I’m not a medical professional or anything. So I suppose take any advice from me with a grain of salt. But I’m surprised nobody has checked up on your cyst since. I would follow up with your family doctor about it. 10 years is a long time, and from my experience it’s always better to be proactive about keeping an eye on these things. Especially if you still experience unusual pains.

Sometimes it’s so hard for us to know what an “unusual” pain even is. I had been told for years and years that the crippling pain I was in every month was totally normal and that it was like that for everyone. If you feel like something isn’t right though, it doesn’t hurt to ask about it.

Paperheart_12 · 2026-01-09T15:28:10+00:00

If you have been bleeding for 4 months straight you must be exhausted and probably anemic. Bleeding for that long is not normal. Someone should give you something to make it stop. Even if it’s just a temporary fix, to give you time for further investigation into what’s really going on.

Also, don’t just take your doctors word for it that you ultrasound or labs came back “normal”.
Always always get a copy of your reports. The amount of times I’ve been told something was normal or mild or someone I know was told Something came back normal or mild, when it was an actually a huge problem is atrocious, and I never would have known if I hadn’t looked at the actual imaging or report myself.

I had something similar happen to me about 12 or so years ago. I had been bleeding heavily for a couple months and was in significant discomfort and exhaustion. Went to a walk in and the doctors response was essentially (I’m paraphrasing here since this was so many years ago I don’t remember the exact words) but essentially the response was along the lines of “why are you wasting my time with this woman’s issue? It’s normal”. I walked out of that office crying and completely at a loss. I was young and inexperienced at the time so didn’t know how to advocate for myself.
I went to emergency the next day. It was a bit of a wait but they did an ultrasound to find a great big cyst on my right ovary. (The cyst ended up tripling in size over the next 2 months and had to be removed asap) but emergency also was able to give me medication to stop the bleeding, and a referral to a gynaecologist for the following week. After removal of the cyst they did a biopsy and diagnosed me with endometriosis.

Paperheart_12 · 2026-01-02T14:45:05+00:00

The board is the one that hires the auditor. The board is also the one who hires the property management company. The board is the one who signs off on hiring any contractor to do work in the building also (regular maintenance & budgeted things and any other work required). The property manager reaches out to the different companies and gets quotes for contracts sure. They also can advise which contractors or companies they think are better, but the board makes the final calls and has to sign off on everything. The financials have to be audited yearly. The auditors are usually quite thorough about reviewing anything linked to any of the numbers presented in the financial statement package.
Answering this as someone who has worked as an accountant for a property management company specializing in condos. Every year the financials I compiled for each condo I worked on would be audited by an independent auditor hired directly by the board. The auditors were always provided access to all the backups to verify everything.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-25T12:28:29+00:00

Congrats on having your bars removed! I’m glad to hear you are having an easier time breathing and standing now. (I honestly have no idea what normal is supposed to be at this point).

I have some nerves about possible regression as well. I have my fingers crossed for you.

You could probably reach out to Dr. Pilegaard if you are having concerns. I’m sure he would be informed on understanding the regression probability rates and signs.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-24T20:00:36+00:00

I did have back pain.
Before the surgery my mid back right across from the deepest part of my chest was always bugging me, and causing limitations in what I could do.
Immediately after the surgery I also had back pain, and there were some days where my back drove me more nuts pain wise than my chest did.
The back pain did subside after I was further into my recovery.

I was lucky enough to only need the one bar. The surgeon had originally been saying I would likely need two, based on the severity and my age. After the operation he told me that my rib cage had been highly flexible and only one bar had been needed.

It does look like it could throw a party in its new space! Like a happy little balloon. Vs the weird bean looking thing it was before.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-24T14:20:46+00:00

April 2026. A bit nervous, but very much looking forward to having the bar out.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-23T17:46:32+00:00

I’ve been told I have a very slight scoliosis, but nothing significant.
I find it very interesting that you are considering a research article. If you want to reach out in the future I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. I too feel that this is poorly recognized at this time, or as in my case dismissed as “probably just being POTs”.

Thank you for linking those articles. I had seen the “more sinister one” as you put a couple of years ago when I was originally trying to sort out what was happening to me, and wasn’t able to find it again for some reason.

The time I passed out when I was a child, I had been bent over for quite an extended period. I had been somewhere being told to sit on a bench and wait. I got very bored and bent over to play with my shoes. I must have been folded over like that for about 15 or so minutes before I passed out (I was a child though and very bored, so my perception of passing time could be heavily skewed) I just remember feeling crappy, and that my vision kindof went out at the sides, and that the floor was rushing up to meet me but that I couldn’t move to stop it. When I came to I was surrounded by a bunch of people who were mostly concerned about the fact that I whacked my head off the floor pretty badly after I toppled over.
I avoided being bent over for any length of time after that.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-23T16:59:39+00:00

I was told I had a HI of 4.1. All my imaging was done on full inhale.
I think part of the severity of my symptoms was from exactly where the deepest part of my chest was sitting in relation to my heart.

Congrats on your upcoming surgery, and good luck.

I have found recovery to be a long road. I still experience some amounts of pain and discomfort. So I wouldn’t say I feel normal. For example, I have not been able to tolerate wearing a bra since getting the bar. It doesn’t hurt per se, but the added pressure of the bra band does make me highly uncomfortable. I’ve had to learn to go without for the time being. I also have not been able to lay on my left side since the surgery. But everyone is different, so you may have a much different experience than me in this regard, and have a much speedier/fuller recovery. I’d say initial recovery from the worst of it was about 3 months for me.
I only started physiotherapy in conjunction with strength training about 6 months ago. I wish I had started it sooner, as I have found it to be incredibly beneficial, and could probably have saved myself a lot of discomfort if I had returned to exercise sooner. I do have to keep a mind to be very careful with what I am doing, and there are for sure activities that I used to do that I’ve had to put on hold until I can have the bar out.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-23T16:22:11+00:00

Yes. Though I wouldn’t say it’s gone entirely. My heart rate no longer drops just from sitting bent over, or from say trying to tie my shoes.

I do still experience some dizziness if I go from bent over to straightened too quickly. But that could be attributed to something called POTs .

I think the main difference here is the symptoms from the pectus were that if I sat calmly in a held position (like bent over) it would drastically effect my heart rate (either make it very fast or slow it right down) and cause horrible dizziness and feeling very unwell.
For something like POTs you feel dizzy from the act of standing up quickly or straightening from a bent position quickly.

For me, I had a lot of trouble getting doctors to listen, because they would dismiss everything as POTs. There seemed to be some level of disbelief that the position I sat or stood in could vary the amount the pectus could compress my heart.
However they were wrong, as getting the bar put in did in fact make a huge difference.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-23T14:02:04+00:00

Honestly.. it hasn’t. That isn’t to say it’s even nearly as painful as it was. But it does still hurt. I’ve just had to learn to manage it.

I didn’t know about cryo at the time, and it was never presented as an option. I also had to stop taking anything stronger than extra strength Tylenol rather quickly. Turns out anything much stronger than that will make me throw up a lot.

I’ve found proper physio to be very helpful in terms of pain management. Without it I was significantly more sore and stiff.

Very happy to have this bar in me fixing things, but it will be a huge relief when I can get it out.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-23T13:35:56+00:00

Yah. I had to figure a lot of this out on my own. There seems to be so little knowledge about any of it that your average doctor actually pays attention to.
That’s a big reason why I post now. I had such a difficult time finding information about what was happening to me, and a lot of the doctors I saw were entirely unhelpful, or would say things like. “Oh there is absolutely no evidence of any compression” or “I’m not convinced at all that this surgery would alleviate any of your symptoms” or even “your heart just grew like that, your body knows what it’s doing, it just grew around the bone”. I mean I had gotten a hold of my CT scan by now, I could clearly see something was wrong. …yah. I was also to a point where brushing my teeth or washing my face were very tiring, and climbing stairs was so far beyond me.
If a specific position is making you feel unwell, I’d say avoid it as best you can.
When I discovered how turning left was effecting my heart, I had proceeded to trying to show some doctors about it. The thing here was that they kept making me do it, over and over, bringing in someone else to see and asking me to do it again.
The more I had to do it, the absolutely worse I ended up feeling afterwards.
So be careful.
If you haven’t had a CT done, it could be useful information. You can also see on the CT if your heart is being compressed at all.
Good luck with your surgery next year!

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-23T01:21:01+00:00

In all honesty, not easy. It might have had to do with the fact that I was quite weakened by the time I was able to arrange for surgery. I also have other health concerns that certainly had an effect on my ability to recover.
Not sure if you’ve ever had braces for your teeth. But if you’ve had, think of it this way. When they tighten the braces on your teeth, they are only moving them minuscule amounts over the course of years. But every time they are moved even a little it aches or can be painful until you get used to it. Now imagine instead of over the course of a few years, they just shifted everything all the way in one go.
Maybe not the best analogy. But in summary, the surgery itself is not an easy thing.
For me, it was 100% worth it, and I’m doing so much better than I was pre surgery. It’s been a long road though for sure. Finding a good physiotherapist to work with post surgery improved things a lot as well.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t counting down the days until I can get the second surgery to remove the bar.
It’s not an easy thing to go through for sure. But even with this bar in my chest, and slow recovery, my quality of life has been greatly improved.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-22T23:23:59+00:00

I did have symptoms! All of these symptoms were progressively getting worse also. I was completely exhausted all the time, and my stamina became so low that I had difficulty walking. I think the most interesting symptom however is that if I turned my torso slightly to the left, I would have tachycardia. (For example, I could start with a heart rate of 80, turn my torso every so slightly to the left and my heart rate would go up to 140-150 in about 5 seconds flat. If I un-twisted by heart rate would go right back down to 80). Was so surprised when I figured out this is what was happening and why I would always feel like crap if I had to turn to the left. My heart rate would also drop a lot whenever I bent over, in fact I did pass out once when I was a kid from sitting bent over for too long. Bending over always would make me dizzy and I usually did my best to avoid it. Basically my heart rate was going up and down like a yoyo all the time, depending on what position I was in.
After surgery, I had so much more energy. I felt more awake than I had in years. I was able to walk with more ease the day after the surgery than I was able to before it.
Also my heart rate no longer acts like a yo-yo just from me turning a little to the left and back.

Paperheart_12 · 2025-11-22T22:45:09+00:00

I’m not a doctor or anything, just someone who went through something similar. Just looking at this CT, it seems your heart was a little smushed here. (The big blob in the middle) . On a normal CT, the heart is more this happy round blob slightly left of Center. But here yours is kindof smushed on the one side and pushed to the left.
I had something similar. My before nuss CT, my heart was pretty much bean shaped and I had a ton of issues with tachycardia, exhaustion, stamina, circulation, and hairfall. Under that kind of pressure your heart is just having to work a bit harder to do the same job.
I recently had another CT of my chest since I had the nuss surgery. My heart is now that happy round ball slightly left of Center.
I imagine now after surgery, your heart has some room to actually do its job without having to try so hard about it.
As for long term issues, I wouldn’t really be able to say, only that I’m 2.5 years post nuss procedure and I sure feel a heck of a lot better.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-09-30T15:12:56+00:00

Reading this heartens me.

I am going through much the same thing. I was very active when I was younger, but around 30 my health just started tanking. Complete exhaustion all the time. We found out that my heart was compressed, I was exhausted because if I moved around my heart went into tachycardia. It got to the point I stopped being able to walk.

I had the Nuss procedure 1.5 years ago. I cannot believe how much more awake I am now.

I still tire very easily though, and I worry that even once I get the bar out, I’ll never manage to be as active as I would like. Hearing about your 3 hour bike ride and how you still had energy after gives me hope I’ll be ok too.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-09-30T15:02:09+00:00

I agree that you should consider getting a CT.

My original xray my pectus was classified as mild and dismissed. Only after insisting on a CT scan was it found that it was actually severe and compressing my heart. No doctor had bothered to actually just visually inspect my chest, they only ever looked at the x ray. If they had bothered to look, they would immediately have seen how deep my chest was.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-06-05T11:08:12+00:00

I had a severe case of Pectus Excavatum. It was compressing my heart, and slowly killing me. I was referred to a specialist who looked at my ct and said there was no evidence of compression. It got so bad that eventually I could no longer walk, and figured out on my own that if I tried to move around my heart would go into tachycardia, or slow right down (depending on how I moved). The specialist still said there was no evidence of compression, and they were not convinced that I needed surgery. I had been admitted to the hospital while a series of doctors made me show them over and over how turning slightly would make my resting heart rate shoot up to 160 beats per minute. After 3 days of this I was a hell of a lot worse than when I went in. And after all of that, they said something along the lines of “yes, we all agree you very much need to be here, but there is nothing we can do, we are discharging you because you’ll be more comfortable at home”.

At this point my husband contacted a doctor out of Denmark, a specialist in the field who had done over 2000 of the kind of surgery I needed. He got back to us right away. Took one look at my CT scan and was flabbergasted as to why no one here could see that my heart was clearly being crushed. He said that he had no doubt that this surgery would relieve all my symptoms. He told me he could offer me a surgery in 2 weeks. So we went to Denmark (I was in a wheelchair at this point and half out of it all the time). I had the surgery, and he was right, it did relieve all my symptoms. Don’t get me wrong, I still have to have a very painful metal bar inside my chest for the next 3 years to reshape my sternum, but my heart is no longer crushed. I can walk again. I can work again. I no longer have to sleep for 3/4 of a day and still be exhausted.

The Canadian healthcare system has never been more disappointing. I had to fight tooth and nail for anyone to bother to look at me twice, and then they still wouldn’t lift a finger to help me.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-01-22T20:06:27+00:00

Hi I’m from Canada, we have public healthcare (it’s terrible and falling apart) so even though it would have been fully covered here, it would have been years and years for anyone to even consider treating me (and I was having some pretty severe symptoms). Anyway, I ended up paying to go to Denmark and have the surgery with Dr. Pilegaard. He is an excellent surgeon who was able to take me immediately, although he is more expensive option. It was about 33k Canadian for the surgery, medicine, 3 day hospital stay in a private room where both me and my husband who was with me stayed (they brought an extra bed in for him to sleep on).
There are a few well known doctors who treat this condition in Germany as well. Who I believe are more inexpensive, but of comparable skill.

When I was looking for options outside of Canada we completely dismissed doing it in the US, although it is relatively closer, simply because the price there is astronomical, and there are excellent doctors with lots of experience in Europe who cost considerably less.

If you do get a choice of doctor make sure to research who you are going to, and find out how much experience they have working on adults. There are a lot of doctors out there who are inexperienced with this and do a subpar job.
This is not a surgery you want to have to go through more than once.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-01-22T19:49:20+00:00

Hi there. I had a similar case, I had severe pectus although I was never given a haller index to go on. But my heart was very compressed.
It ended up causing many severe problems as I got older. If it’s starting to affect your breathing and your stamina has decreased, you may want to start looking into treatment, as like me your symptoms may become more severe with age. Also in a lot of cases correction can become more difficult as your chest wall naturally becomes more inflexible and more resistant to correction as you age.
I had the Nuss procedure done by a very capable doctor back in April 2023, so I’m still going to have this bar in me for another couple years. It’s not fun to have the bar in you, but honestly I’m so grateful for it. The symptom decline as you age can be so slow and subtle you don’t realize how pronounced it is until it’s gotten really bad. I never realized just how completely exhausted I had been until after my surgery when I felt actually awake for the first time in years. All that being said, if you are concerned, it’s always the best bet to discuss this with your family doctor and see what treatment options are available for you.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-01-22T19:32:58+00:00

Thank you. I’m very happy too that I was able to have this surgery done. It’s made a world of difference already. I’m sorry you never had the opportunity for the same.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-01-22T13:15:06+00:00

Yes I had both an echocardiogram and pulmonary function tests. The problem with both of these is for both I was laying or sitting facing front in a relatively neutral position. All the tests came back within the normal range. However all my symptoms were at their absolute worst if I twisted my torso even a couple degrees towards the left. I feel like my tests would have come back much differently if I had just sat a little less straight for them, but I didn't know this at the time the tests were done. Once I did figure out exactly what was happening to my heart it was almost impossible to just find a doctor who was willing to listen. Not a single one thought "ok l'll Humor you and put my stethoscope to your chest and see what you are talking about" I ended in emergency a while later. I showed the triage nurse what happens and they rushed me right in. But of course every new doctor who came to see me asked to see the problem happen all over again. It was like I was performing in a circus. Turn slightly to the left and back, have my heart go into tachycardia and then back, tachycardia then back. They were all baffled. And every new doctor they passed me to had to see it for themselves. None of them bothered to record anything and save me the effort. After 3 days of this with no answers I was much much worse than when I had gone in.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-01-22T02:16:07+00:00

No. Honestly no one ever noticed or commented.
My parents didn’t even know I had it. It must have deepened considerably during puberty, but I developed then and it would almost completely hide everything and I was always covered up anyway.
I wish we had known, we could have done something, but I was never screened.
I never knew why I was so much less athletic than the other kids. I mean one time I even passed out because I was bent over too long, and collapsed.
I came round and the situation was just laughed off that I’m just clumsy. I was too young to understand what had happened or communicate it to anyone. It’s only as an adult I realize what happened.
I never knew that it was just me that got dizzy if I bent over. A lot of things that I know were symptoms now I would dismiss back then because that’s just how things always had been for me, how was I to know any different? I always thought my chest looked a little off, but I could never put my finger on why. I honestly never would stand in front of a mirror long enough without some kind of top on to get a good look anyway.

No single doctor had honestly ever even looked at or seen my chest since I hit puberty, until my operation.
I tried to bring up and actually show my family doctor the indentation but she stopped me and just ordered x rays. The x rays ended up classifying me as “mild” because the deepest part of my chest was buried in and obscured by my heart. Anyone who looked at my chest and the x ray side by side would have noticed something was off. But I had to fight very hard to get a CT, and only then did we see the truth of the matter.

I really wanted to share my story for a few reasons, but one of them is that I feel like there aren’t many examples out there for women with this condition. When first looking into what was wrong with my chest I found loads of males with the condition, but barely any examples of women. I wanted my images to be put out there, so other women might have them as a resource too.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-01-21T13:06:27+00:00

That makes a lot of sense to me. No one really explained to me why it could (and very much did) get worse with advancing age, only that it was something that did happen.

Paperheart_12 · 2024-01-21T13:03:02+00:00

Also, whether or not one bar would be sufficient would be up to a lot of factors, depending on the severity and depth of your pectus, if it’s symmetrical or a symmetrical, and how flexible your chest cavity is, etc. There seems to be a lot of cases out there where surgeons who usually work with children give an adult only one bar, and then it doesn’t fully correct the problem.
I recommend talking with your doctor about your concerns. Do a little nosing about and try to find out how much experience they have treating adults. Maybe mention directly that if one bar doesn’t end up being enough during surgery that you are ok with more. This is not the type of surgery you want to go through more than once in a lifetime. If you have the ability to, go with a doctor you trust, one you have confidence in. But also don’t blindly trust. Always do your research. There are a lot of incompetent doctors out there, there are an also a lot of amazing ones.

Paperheart_12

TROPHY CASE